Wisdom sometimes cames with age

Candidate 0bama in 2009 made one of his “speeches” on racism. I already knew what he was and predicted that he would be a self centered jerk — loyal to the money bags who were paying for his expensive political campaign. So when 0bama threw his still living grandmother under the bus and called her RACIST — it was no surprise. He clearly hated women and hated old people. Later during the campaign 0bama indicated that Social Security and Medicare needed to be “fixed”. Well we have seen his fixes — he has made the top 1% richer while the middle class and poor have suffered. Real unemployment is at depression levels and jobs are NOT a priority of the 0bowma administration — surprise — NOT.

Of course Science Fiction has already followed the above scenario to a logical conclusion.

In the year 2022, the population has grown to forty million people in New York City alone. Most housing is dilapidated and overcrowded, and the homeless fill the streets and line the fire escapes and stairways of buildings. Food as we know it in present times is a rare and expensive commodity. Most of the world’s population survives on processed rations produced by the massive Soylent Corporation, including Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow, which are advertised as “high-energy vegetable concentrates.” The newest product is Soylent Green, a small green wafer which is advertised as being produced from “high-energy plankton.” It is much more nutritious and palatable than the red and yellow varieties, but, like most other food, it is in short supply, which often leads to food riots.

Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) is a New York City Police Department detective in the 14th Precinct who lives in a dilapidated, cramped one-room apartment with his aged friend and roommate, Solomon “Sol” Roth (Edward G. Robinson, in his last film). Roth is a ‘book,’ a former professor who searches through the now-disordered remnants of written records to help Thorn’s investigations. He tells Thorn about the time before the ecological disaster and population crisis, when real food was plentiful; however, Thorn is generally not interested in such stories, finding most of them too hard to believe.

Thorn is assigned to investigate the murder of William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten). At the crime scene, he finds Simonson lying in a pool of blood after having been struck multiple times in the back of the head. Instead of looking for clues, the poorly paid detective helps himself to the wealthy man’s food, liquor, shower (with real hot water and soap), and books. He questions Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young), an attractive 21 year old concubine (euphemistically known as “furniture”) who comes with the apartment, and Simonson’s bodyguard, Tab Fielding (Chuck Connors), who claims that he was told to escort Shirl on a shopping trip when the attack took place.

. . . . The worldwide oceans have died and can no longer produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is officially said to be made.”

“.. . . spread the word: “Soylent Green is PEOPLE!”

O.K. in 2011 so we have a Prez who hates women and old people and there is talk of “reducing” the Social Security of the old folks least able to defend themselves. We’ve already had cases of old folks literally freezing to death and the officials who cut off their heat claim, “we were only following the rules”. Many old folks are already making a choice of medicine, food or heat.

There is no ERA in the US and right now we are seeing the zippers deciding that women don’t need birth control or the other nasty things that women might need. The males in several states have cut Planned Parenthood funding — which offers health care to people below the poverty line.

The oceans are in bad shape. I know that the nut job GOP loves to claim otherwise — but anyone who lives close to the oceans and is aware of the rapid decline of fish stock etc.. The GOP obviously has zero concern about population control or how billions of people will need to be fed. Oh let’s not forget about clean water and medical care when the plagues begin to hit.

Science Fiction has been dealing with following the dots and finding a logical conclusion or an alternative reality.

In the U.S., the number of women who die from pregnancy complications on an annual basis has doubled over the last 20 years, and a full one-third of pregnant American women will suffer from some form of complication, according to Amnesty International.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows that black women were most likely to die during pregnancy, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies recorded on average. For white women that number drops to 9.5 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies, largely split along the lines of income disparity and a lack of access to women’s health services, including abortion.